Hallo again! I’m (still) Ben Brooks, Lead Content Designer on Fable Legends. You might remember me from such blogs as “that one I did a few weeks ago”. This time I’m going to spend a little less time talking about myself and a little more time talking about the game. Specifically, Albion in the time of Legends.

Albion is why I love Fable. As I said before, to be able to contribute to one of my favourite game universes is a real privilege. It’s also a lot of responsibility. We owe it to all you Fable fans to build a world worthy of the name.

We get a lot of fan feedback about the direction Albion has taken over the course of its development, and one of the things we hear a lot is people’s preference for magic over the more industrial direction of Fable 3. This is a view shared by many here at Lionhead, and you’ll be pleased to hear we’ve taken this on board for Fable Legends.

One of our main objectives was to get back to Fable’s dark fairytale roots. We want to take you back to a time when Albion was young and full of magic, to a world that’s dangerous, wild and ripe for adventure. The game will see you explore a time centuries before Fable 1, though after the world has recovered from the collapse of the Old Kingdom. You’ll see a lot less technology, and far more raw magic, than other Fables.

In many ways, this is Albion at its most pastoral and primitive. The land is a patchwork of small villages and towns, islands in a sea of hostile forest. It’s too risky for your average bumpkin to travel, so communications are limited and people are suspicious of outsiders. Each place has its own distinct customs and ways of relating to the magic that surrounds them. Even villages just the other side of the hills have enough funny accents, odd clothes and bizarre turnip-rituals to make strangers really seem strange.

Magic is more common, it’s also uncontrolled. Strange and dangerous creatures lurk everywhere outside the safety of the campfires and village walls. As a result, most people are content to travel only by listening to old stories, tales of a world far too scary to wander into. The most danger they tend to risk is scuttling down the bottom of the garden to clean out the chickens, and even that’s asking for trouble (some of the little clucky buggers have pretty sharp beaks). But not everyone hides by the fireside. Albion has always been able to find the special few willing to answer the call. Wanderers, adventurers, masters of Will. Old eccentrics and young upstarts. Heroes!

If you’d like to know more about both Albion and its Heroes, or more about how we go about building them, then stay tuned! Over the next month or so, you’ll see more blogs from myself and some of the other developers, revealing more about the game and what goes into making it.

Feel free to ask on the forums if there are specific things you’d like a blog about!

I have to ask... will there be couch co-op? One of the main reasons I play Fable is that it's the best game to play with my girlfriend. (The price tag on a new Xbox is far too high to be purchasing two of them along with two copies of a game.) I remember after we completed Fable 3 she said in disappointment "Wait... that's it? We beat it already?" To which I replied "No worries, they are making another one." I can only hope you guys at Lionhead keep this in mind, and keep the gaming in the household enjoyable for both of us, and I'm sure many other gamers here will agree. :)

Also, I have to say this as well. Smart Glass and other devices do not count as game controllers. It seems like too many game companies are trying to incorporate tablets and phones into the games' functionality and it's quite insulting to us old school gamers. Having the option is fine, but forcing certain features to rely on these devices is a bit asinine. Just some friendly feedback.

Enjoyable read, gives further idea into the state of Albion society, which from the looks of its you cant even say the Land as a whole has a society just community villages.

As such the land seems so unorganized that the hero guild is no where near established or founded so this has skewered my speculation with new speculation.

The new being that its those who have the attributes of heroes who meet those who have problems with monsters or have to go somewhere dangers which seems like a interesting enough place to set the game within the timeline but I say it would have been like 700 years before fable TLC IMO.

The old was that it was in the golden generation of heroes which Nostro was running the guild. Which the heroes guild you was at war with with an other Guild which was soul bent and harming Albion with twisted ambitions and influence from the void and the guild was called the Villains Guild while they had less members then the heroes however their demented forum of will challenged the finest of the age and took a team of four just to dispatch one agent of evil.

Anyway cant wait for details on how to get into the beta and the like, many hypes, so have all my money

This is interesting. The less open, slightly more xenophobic Albion would make for a great setting for fairy tales. An innocence to the world, combined with something a bit world-weary and jaded, has always been some of the magic of Albion for me and it sounds like you're going for more of that.

I'll be interested to see how this translates into the design philosophy of the game. From what we know so far it seems that the hub will be the city of Brightlodge, so how will those foreign villages present themselves to the player? How will (s)he get to experience these turnip rituals and accents? The obvious answer is that we'll come across them in the field or meet people from those places when they do visit the main hub. I suppose the things villagers say will fill in some parts of the world as well, and then there are the conversations that the Heroes will have with each other. The last one particularly interests me as it allows a glimpse into far away places before those places are even considered for an expansion pack.

If there's something I'd like to see a future blog on, it's this untamed magic and the creatures it has brought into existence. A look at a creature or situation that is unique to Legends, and some look at the backstory behind that thing, perhaps with a look at how we'd encounter that in the game. That sort of thing.

I'd also like a look at the way conversations are scripted between Heroes. Are they all set in stone to happen at the same time in each mission, or will certain combinations of Hero types have conversations that activate in certain places that can't be heard elsewhere? Will we have backstory revealed slowly and need multiple plays to find out about the charaacters, or are they more about the current situation?

I've been very quiet since the return of these forums choosing to ghost them instead of actively converse. I've been reluctant to give an opinion on this game given we don't know much about and much of what we do know Ive been skeptical of. This post has me very interested in what's to come. Thanks for the update! Its great to know LH is listening! I look forward to the forthcoming news.

I didn't bother reading all the comments (except Zeaq and furie :P) because I'am to pumped up!! THIS IS GOING TO BE A GREAT MONTH NOW FOR SURE! I can't wait to learn of the heroes! Still hopeing for a young guy, a witty rougeish teen. He needs to be funny and AWSOME!! Also furie I only read half of what you wrote it was to LOOOOOOOONG(but I usually read all of it cause you have a lot of good ideas) AM TO HYPER TO CONTROL MY SELF!!! I GOT TO KICK A REAL CHIKEN NOW!!!!!!!!! ALSO I READ ZEAQS CAUSE I HAVENT SEEN THAT GUY IN FOREVER!! SORRY IF I SEEM LIKE A [censored] , IAM JUST TO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!

I have to ask... will there be couch co-op? One of the main reasons I play Fable is that it's the best game to play with my girlfriend. (The price tag on a new Xbox is far too high to be purchasing two of them along with two copies of a game.) I remember after we completed Fable 3 she said in disappointment "Wait... that's it? We beat it already?" To which I replied "No worries, they are making another one." I can only hope you guys at Lionhead keep this in mind, and keep the gaming in the household enjoyable for both of us, and I'm sure many other gamers here will agree. :)

There's no info currently on whether couch co-op will be possible - though it is possible to play as a Villain in the same room as a Hero using Smart Glass (see next comment).

Originally Posted by: Johnny2 Fingerz

Also, I have to say this as well. Smart Glass and other devices do not count as game controllers. It seems like too many game companies are trying to incorporate tablets and phones into the games' functionality and it's quite insulting to us old school gamers. Having the option is fine, but forcing certain features to rely on these devices is a bit asinine. Just some friendly feedback.

And don't worry, using Smart Glass won't be mandatory - it's there as an option to improve your experience.

How large are the forrests going to be? The problem that the old Fables had was the explorable areas were still to small. Now don't get me wrong I know that it will not be like Skyrim but it should be deep and dark forests. I am very excited to play this but the map needs to be stepped up to next gen standards. Will there be a well defined path like previous games or more of the path is there but hard to discern at times? If travelers are rare the paths should be over grown and very dangerous.

^^^ What @Bigg Daddy86 said^^^ Would be ace if we could explore deep and dark forests extensively. Next Gen must mean we can carefully pick our way through undergrowth and thick bracken etc. Looking at Dragon Age: Inquisition and The Witcher 3 there's so much potential for fully realised worlds...

Sounds good though, really excited about the return to magic and dark fairy tale-ness! New enemies, new abilities and a darker Albion sounds like a recipe for success! Good on ya Lionhead!

I didn't bother reading all the comments (except Zeaq and furie :P) because I'am to pumped up!! THIS IS GOING TO BE A GREAT MONTH NOW FOR SURE! I can't wait to learn of the heroes! Still hopeing for a young guy, a witty rougeish teen. He needs to be funny and AWSOME!! Also furie I only read half of what you wrote it was to LOOOOOOOONG(but I usually read all of it cause you have a lot of good ideas) AM TO HYPER TO CONTROL MY SELF!!! I GOT TO KICK A REAL CHIKEN NOW!!!!!!!!! ALSO I READ ZEAQS CAUSE I HAVENT SEEN THAT GUY IN FOREVER!! SORRY IF I SEEM LIKE A [censored] , IAM JUST TO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!

I have to ask... will there be couch co-op? One of the main reasons I play Fable is that it's the best game to play with my girlfriend. (The price tag on a new Xbox is far too high to be purchasing two of them along with two copies of a game.) I remember after we completed Fable 3 she said in disappointment "Wait... that's it? We beat it already?" To which I replied "No worries, they are making another one." I can only hope you guys at Lionhead keep this in mind, and keep the gaming in the household enjoyable for both of us, and I'm sure many other gamers here will agree. :)

There's no info currently on whether couch co-op will be possible - though it is possible to play as a Villain in the same room as a Hero using Smart Glass (see next comment).

Originally Posted by: Johnny2 Fingerz

Also, I have to say this as well. Smart Glass and other devices do not count as game controllers. It seems like too many game companies are trying to incorporate tablets and phones into the games' functionality and it's quite insulting to us old school gamers. Having the option is fine, but forcing certain features to rely on these devices is a bit asinine. Just some friendly feedback.

And don't worry, using Smart Glass won't be mandatory - it's there as an option to improve your experience.

Cheers,Hohbes

I hope that couch co-op is in the works. Playing the villain against a hero is definitely the opposite of cooperation. That will probably be the deciding factor when it comes to actually purchasing the game (at least at full price). I do enjoy Fable, but LH has had a nasty habit of removing great features from the series. But, that is just my opinion. My GF actually mentioned purchasing an Xbox One together, but once she discovers that the new Fable has no couch co-op I will most likely be on my own upon that purchase. Fingers crossed. Hahaha!

I didn't bother reading all the comments (except Zeaq and furie :P) because I'am to pumped up!! THIS IS GOING TO BE A GREAT MONTH NOW FOR SURE! I can't wait to learn of the heroes! Still hopeing for a young guy, a witty rougeish teen. He needs to be funny and AWSOME!! Also furie I only read half of what you wrote it was to LOOOOOOOONG(but I usually read all of it cause you have a lot of good ideas) AM TO HYPER TO CONTROL MY SELF!!! I GOT TO KICK A REAL CHIKEN NOW!!!!!!!!! ALSO I READ ZEAQS CAUSE I HAVENT SEEN THAT GUY IN FOREVER!! SORRY IF I SEEM LIKE A [censored] , IAM JUST TO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!

I didn't bother reading all the comments (except Zeaq and furie :P) because I'am to pumped up!! THIS IS GOING TO BE A GREAT MONTH NOW FOR SURE! I can't wait to learn of the heroes! Still hopeing for a young guy, a witty rougeish teen. He needs to be funny and AWSOME!! Also furie I only read half of what you wrote it was to LOOOOOOOONG(but I usually read all of it cause you have a lot of good ideas) AM TO HYPER TO CONTROL MY SELF!!! I GOT TO KICK A REAL CHIKEN NOW!!!!!!!!! ALSO I READ ZEAQS CAUSE I HAVENT SEEN THAT GUY IN FOREVER!! SORRY IF I SEEM LIKE A [censored] , IAM JUST TO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!

How large are the forrests going to be? The problem that the old Fables had was the explorable areas were still to small. Now don't get me wrong I know that it will not be like Skyrim but it should be deep and dark forests. I am very excited to play this but the map needs to be stepped up to next gen standards. Will there be a well defined path like previous games or more of the path is there but hard to discern at times? If travelers are rare the paths should be over grown and very dangerous.

Originally Posted by: Haste Avenger

Hey Hohbes I have a question that i hope you can answer. Will fable legends give players a sense of exploration like games like kingdoms of Amalur? if so, how?

Hi guys,

There's a pretty good quote from an article over on OXM which goes into some detail about how the narrative/questing will work - which explains a little around how open the world is:

Quote:

We're emphasizing story, whether you're playing single-player or not. The story's really important to us. It's really a part of Fable. It's going to be pretty seamless for users - they get a quest, they run out [of] the city gates and they find that quest. But it's not like a giant, World of Warcraft-style open world [where] you would leap from quest to quest and that kind of thing... You're going to have to unlock missions kind of as part of the narrative, so the narrative is still really important.

As we move through development and you get to see more gameplay etc, you'll get a much better feel for this side of things.

I didn't bother reading all the comments (except Zeaq and furie :P) because I'am to pumped up!! THIS IS GOING TO BE A GREAT MONTH NOW FOR SURE! I can't wait to learn of the heroes! Still hopeing for a young guy, a witty rougeish teen. He needs to be funny and AWSOME!! Also furie I only read half of what you wrote it was to LOOOOOOOONG(but I usually read all of it cause you have a lot of good ideas) AM TO HYPER TO CONTROL MY SELF!!! I GOT TO KICK A REAL CHIKEN NOW!!!!!!!!! ALSO I READ ZEAQS CAUSE I HAVENT SEEN THAT GUY IN FOREVER!! SORRY IF I SEEM LIKE A [censored] , IAM JUST TO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!

sure, but it wouldn't last... you'd have about a few hours before the grease hits your system, then bye bye levels... so more of a buff than an upgrade. Anyhow, good to know that there's still a set narrative, though with the set hero/villain roles and mechanics, how would a campaign work? unlock both sides of each encounter as you progress one or the other?

You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.